The Burning Sands and Capaneus

Dante and Virgil emerge onto a plain of burning sand, where flakes of fire rain down endlessly. The souls of the violent against God, nature, and art are punished here. Some lie supine, some sit huddled, and some walk continually. Among them, the giant Capaneus lies disdainful, unheeding the fire, boasting that Jove's thunderbolts cannot give him joyous vengeance. Virgil rebukes him, saying his own rage is his greatest torment. They follow a little rivulet of blood that flows from the wood, its banks of stone providing a path. Virgil explains the origin of the infernal rivers: from a great old man in Crete, whose tears form Acheron, Styx, Phlegethon, and Cocytus. This episode introduces the figure of the Old Man of Crete, an allegory of the ages of humanity, and the concept of the rivers of Hell as the tears of human sin.